Centerville, OhioAugust 1957

Unidentified

Summary

On the evening of August 21, 1957, a witness in Centerville, Ohio reported seeing two bright, star-like objects in the sky. The objects appeared around 8:30 p.m. during twilight and were visible for about sixteen minutes before fading from view as darkness fell.

The witness described the objects as very bright and noted that they disappeared rather rapidly after sunset. The objects resembled stars in appearance and were positioned at different locations in the sky during the observation period.

The U.S. Air Force investigated the sighting and concluded that the objects were most likely the planets Venus and Arcturus, which can appear exceptionally bright during twilight hours and seem to vanish quickly once the sun sets below the horizon. No evidence was found to contradict this astronomical explanation.

The complete case file, consisting of 9 pages as held by the National Archives, is reproduced below.

Reported location

Centerville, Ohio

Date of incident

August 1957

State / country

OH / US

Page count

9 scanned pages

USAF evaluation

unidentified

Microfilm

T1206, Roll 28

Original case file scans

Original case file · scanned by NARAPage 1 of 9

View transcribed text

3 Sha) : PROJECT 10073 RECORD CARD : :
4 1. DATE : 2. LOCATION 12. CONCLUSIONS :
[ OD Wos Balloon
: 21 August 1957 Centerville, Ohio 5 Boe Boje
| 3. DATE-TIME GROUP 4. TYPE OF OBSERVATION O Possibly Bolleon
4 213 0ST i OD Was Aircraft
1 Local 0 ES KGround- Visual DO Ground-Rador QO Probably Aircraft
- M7 22/02307Z 0 Air Visual O Air-Intercept Rodor D Possibly Aircraft
| PHofos SOURCE Ox XWas Astronomical/ 1/727 SEA ig)
3 O Yes DO Probably Astronomical
1 Kio Civilian DO Possibly Astronomicol
| 7. LENGTH OF.OBSERVATION 8. NUMBER OF OBJECTS | 9. COURSE 0 ON alba i a
iT D ish hy Dota for Evaluation
f s oO
16 minutes two i
~ |10. BRIEF SUMMARY OF SIGHTING 11. COMMENTS = _ x
FE G % JUTe IL
1 Two star-like objects, Venus & Aretu®rus, very bright at
1 this time and disappear rather
1 rapidly after sunset.
| : ' ATIC FORM 329 (REV 26 SEP 52)
&
=
i +3
E
EE : /
E . ' .
§

/ 9

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Source: National Archives Catalog · NAID 28971303